Halloween

We get one extra hour of sleep for one day. Lose more daylight though. Oh well.

Goodbye to October; hello to November. Less than two days to Election Day. Ah, the true day of horror.

In light of Election Day, consider these two articles:

Stephen J. Marmon’s op-ed piece of October 29, 2004, in the NY Times
explains how it’s possible that there could be an Acting President John Edwards – a nightmare scenario:

a tie: “Electoral College 269-269 deadlock, and send the tied contests to Congress; the House would choose the president and the Senate the vice president.

“In the Senate, at least 51 votes would be required to elect a vice president. Given current polls, the Democrats can gain control of the Senate by picking up seats in Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky and Oklahoma, while losing seats in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Senator Edwards would be elected as vice president.

“The House, however, votes for president by state, with 26 delegations required for election. If members of the House then voted as their states did, President Bush, in this scenario, would carry 28 states, thus leading to a Bush-Edwards administration.”

But – a Congressional deadlock may mean no president in a timely manner –

“The Constitution provides that the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns or is removed from office. But the 20th Amendment states that: ‘If a president shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the president-elect shall have failed to qualify, then the vice president-elect shall act as president until a president shall have qualified.’

“The House could remain deadlocked for two years, and perhaps even four, depending on the results of the 2006 Congressional elections. And until the House reaches a decision, Acting President John Edwards would occupy the Oval Office.”

Uh… yeah… Hopefully unlikely, but it can happen. I guess.

Plus, today’s column in the NY Times – Thomas Friedman endorses… George (H.W.) Bush, due to his courage in domestic and foreign politics (even if Bush the Elder didn’t have total finesse, he had sense and sensibility). Interesting. First Senator Lincoln Chafee, now Friedman – going for Bush the Elder…

October reading: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – a lovely first time novel by an Afghan-American physician, who writes of the coming of age of two Afghan boys; the time of war-torn Afghanistan of the early 1980’s and the Taliban of the 1990’s. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling – I liked the movie; the book filled in lots of stuff – better than the other two books, I daresay; now I’m heading into book 4 of the series – let’s see if I really can finish the series by the end of the year… Plus, one romance novel – Dearest Love by Betty Neels (I couldn’t help it; I needed some kind of transition before plunging into Harry Potter Book 4 – the size of the thing is intimidating…)

Have a good week…

Some things I miss

1. My friends
2. Frankies Prime Rib & Seafood –
359 Boston Post Rd., Westbrook, CT 860-399-5524
Prime rib & seafood. Upper deck view of the harbor & Long Island Sound. Banquet facilities, catering. Parking. Near exits 64&65 on I-95 in Connecticut. River Valley area.
3. China Grill – Calamari Salad
4. Pacific Coast Highway California Pacific Coast Hwy
5. French Paul & Russian Paul: 5 minutes @ Washington Sq. Park
6. Veselka’s
7. Fall scenery New England fall view
8. CA Wine Valley
9. Duckhorn Vineyards
10. White Camry DL 1987
11. Shadyside Art’s Festival
12. NYC during Christmas and New York holidays
13. Real seasons – especially autumn in New England.
Drives
like this.
14. Dunkin Donuts and its coffee
15. Carnegie Hall, NYC
16. NY Philharmonic
17. Real NYC bagels, bialys and scallion cream cheese
18. Montague Hot Bagels
19. The Promenade
20. Freshly manicured lawns

Friday

“Star Trek: Enterprise” – wow. Amazing episode. The whole digital filming thing has made the picture really stunning. Plus – this time, the writing’s tight and plotting really interesting, which made for pretty good acting. Scott Bakula was his strongest as Capt. Archer (I had liked him when he was Sam Beckett in “Quantum Leap” – so seeing him tonight as an able character was just great Archer wasn’t a Janeway, so to speak (and longtime Trekkies will know what I mean – and I’m someone who didn’t really hate Capt. Janeway). Brent Spiner (the former Data of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) – he’s quite an actor. Oh, and the rest of the cast and guest cast were pretty good too (again, good writing helps). I can almost forgive the Trek folks for the ridiculous cliffhanger of last season and the weird alternate WWII history episodes.

Notice how nicely that I haven’t given away anything plot-wise? 😉 Seriously, it was a good episode – and I think we’re supposed to get more of Spiner for another two episodes. Maybe continue with this stronger Archer… for the rest of the season. If you missed the episode tonight, catch the re-broadcast (Channel 9, 7pm, in NYC metro area).

Oh, and I forgot to mention this in the Wednesday night post — I was at the alma mater law school Wednesday night for a reception, and of course there’s the excited chatter about the new building and that there’s a bed in the student lounge to sample the new bed for the new dorm… So, when I left the law school, and passed by the lounge, I had to just stand there and realize, Good Grief – the dean wasn’t kidding – there was a bed in the lounge. Gosh, I remember all the times just about everybody has slept in the sofas of the lounge and the library and how my classmates would joke that they ought to put beds… and there was a real bed right there…

Eh. So the world changes; the rest of the law school looked pretty much the same (oh, ok, so the last time I was there was just six months ago, but I look for the little changes, really I do).

TGIF.